Royal Albert Hospital (original part only)

The Royal Albert Hospital, original part, was built between 1868 and 1873 and designed by Paley and Austin. It is a substantial building constructed of dressed sandstone with ashlar dressings and red St Bees sandstone banding at the impost levels of the ground and first floors and as eaves corbels. The roofs are covered in green Coniston slate. The building is constructed in the Gothic Revival style.

The symmetrical design features a two-storey main block with a basement and attics containing gabled dormer windows. The central six-bay block is flanked by eleven-bay wings, each with a central three-bay canted projection and a wider, taller three-bay pavilion with its own roof at the ends. Most ground-floor windows contain paired lancet windows with a two-centred arched hoodmould, while first-floor windows largely feature paired lights with flat lintels. Windows in the projections and pavilions are more elaborate, frequently incorporating triple lancets under an oculus. All dormer windows have cross casements and hipped roofs with finials.

A single-storey triple-arched porch of red sandstone columns sits at the centre of the main block, flanked by projecting bays with two paired windows on the ground floor; a buttress supports a canted oriel window above on the first floor. Behind the porch rises a three-storey tower with four corner turrets and a steeply-pitched roof with three tiers of gabled dormers. The central section of the tower’s middle storey displays a clock flanked by statues of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, sculpted in Longridge stone by Mr Bridgeman of Lichfield and unveiled in 1888. This is positioned beneath an arcade of trefoiled arches set into gablets. The long rear wings to the left and right each feature bay centres between projecting three-bay pavilions with separate roofs.

The interior of the central block includes an imperial staircase with an ornate wrought-iron balustrade, rising behind a triple arch with elaborate waterleaf capitals. A five-bay De Vitre Hall is located further back and features two-light transomed windows under an oculus and a roof of six arch-braced trusses with a king post surmounted by arches above the collar.

The hospital was originally established as the ‘Royal Albert Idiot Asylum for idiots and imbeciles of the seven northern counties’ and served both paying patients and those admitted through subscriber votes.